International

SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe today conducted an inspection of a garden centre run by Life and Garden, at the invitation of environmentalist group "Milieudefensie" ("Environmental Defence"). Life and Garden, which operates a chain of garden centres throughout the Netherlands, was presented with Milieudefensie's not exactly coveted "Botte Bijl Award" in the presence of Poppe and a number of his parliamentary colleagues. The Botte Bijl Award – a bijl is an axe, but the English expression which best translates "als een Botte Bijl" is probably "like a bull in a china shop" – is presented for outstanding service to the destruction of forests. Life and Garden won it for, amongst other things, their use of illegally-felled wood from Indonesia. Earlier in the week Remi Poppe, well-known for his environmental activism inside and outside parliament, put a number of questions to the government on the issue of illegal forestry in Congo.

In an open letter, representatives of political parties and NGOs have called on Defence Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop to work towards a world-wide ban on all forms of cluster munition, with the Netherlands taking a lead. This week in the Peruvian capital of Lima an international conference is taking place the goal of which is to bring such a ban closer. SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen took the initiative in calling for a ban and is participating in the official Netherlands delegation along with representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence.